The cosmic dance

Yesterday our daughter was dancing to a poem, the meaning of which goes like this - "every dance consists of three essential parts- the bodily poses, the lyrics and the attire. For lord Siva's dance the whole universe is the body, all the literature in the world is the lyrics, and the moon and the stars are part of the attire."

How true it is! There is not a minuscule place in this whole universe where god is not present. People think "I am doing this. I wrote that. I can sing many songs. I have this much wealth," and the likes while unnecessarily nurturing their egos. The same person feeling so proud, can't even move a finger when God withdraws his energy from the body. The person suddenly becomes a mere body and disintegrates within hours. 

But when one realizes the cosmic dance, he loses all the ego and becomes part of the God. Rather, realizes being part of God. Then, there is no place for greed, sorrow, disappointment, etc. in that person's life. There is only the eternal and boundless joy of the Lords cosmic dance, that fills his heart and spills out spreading it's way through the hearts of all living beings surrounding him. 

Get out exactly as you got in

In the Panchtantra there is a tale. A fox was roaming the forest for a long time searching for food. It could not find any and starved for days. It became so thin like a skeleton. One day, to its surprise, it found a tree hollow with lots of different kinds of food. It immediately jumped in and started devouring the food. It ate so much that the belly bulged like a pumpkin. 

Tired of eating, it slowly slipped into sleep. When it woke up and tried to get out, the tummy doesn't fit through the tiny opening. It didn't know what to do. A rabbit was passing by and noticed the struggle. It asked the fox what the problem was. 

The fox said it wanted to come out of the tree hollow, but was not fitting through the opening. The rabbit asked, "How did you get in in the first place?" The fox replied, "I was starving for days and became so thin that I could squeeze in." The rabbit replied, "Then, starve again until you become thin enough to get out. Get out exactly as you got in."

We too came into this world with a blank mind. But we kept feeding information into the mind through our five senses, so much that it bulged enough to give us constant pain. If we really want to get out of the cycle of rebirths, we need to get rid of the bulge by starving our minds. We cannot attain freedom until we get rid of all the worldly imprints from our minds. Meditation is a great tool in cleansing the mind. But it can only help when we stop feeding unnecessary things newly into the mind. 

Look within

Jeeva slowly opened his eyes. It was all dark. He doesn't remember how he ended up here and what was this place. In a few minutes his eyes got adjusted to the darkness and he could see things around him.

When he saw the delicious sweets he started feeling hungry. He tried to reach for them, but couldn't move that far. Unable to stand up, he tried to crawl to the sweets tray. He could only go near it but couldn't touch it. He looked around and found a TV. He thought at least he could have some entertainment and forget about the hunger. But, the remote was nowhere to be seen.

He started looking around to see if someone could help him. There was no trace of any human presence. He tried hard but couldn't control his emotions or cravings. He kept looking around for someone or something to help and didn't understand why he was not able to move much.

While looking around he suddenly glanced towards himself and realized the reason for his inability to move. His feet were tied to the wall with an iron chain. He tried to untangle himself from the chain, but unfortunately it was secured with a lock.

He started searching for the key. He looked all over the room, but couldn't find it. He was struggling a lot to get out of the bondage, but that was not possible without the key. As he finished searching the whole room, he felt something in his pocket. To his surprise, it was the key he was looking for and he was free at last.

We too are bound in this dark world and without realizing it we keep yearning for all things around us. And eternally feel sorry for our inability to get what we want. Once we stop looking around and start to look towards ourselves, we realize that we were bound by the illusion called Maya. And the key to open the bondage is also within us. It's the knowledge of the self - Aatma Jnana. It cannot be acquired from outside. It can only be achieved from within. And once we find the key, there is nothing in the world that can bind us.

South facing home

I keep hearing from many Indians in America that one should not buy a south facing home as it is against Vaastu. I wonder where this all started, as I have never heard this while in India. And I haven't seen one single village or town in India that doesn't have any south facing homes at all. If the belief is true and most of Indians believe in it, all the Indian towns and villages should have a U shaped structure with a vast opening on the south side. But, as all of you know, that is not the case.

Then, why the highly educated Indians in America are spreading this superstition? What I understand is people fear the South because Lord Yama is the presiding deity of the southern direction. As you know, Lord Yama's full name is Yama Dharma Raja. When one follows his Dharma, he has no need to fear Yama. Lord Yama is a true impartial and unbiased judge. And when two parties go to the judge on a case, they both respect the judge, but the guilty party is the one that fears the judge.

Moreover, there is no greater heaven than your happiness and no worse hell than your sorrow. One should not strive to go to heaven or hell. Both the heaven and hell are temporary in nature same as the day and night. Once you finish paying-off your Karma in heaven or hell, you will be forced back to the earth to continue acquiring new Karma, just as one will be forced out of a hotel after spending all his money. Lord Krishna clearly stated this in Gita - "ते तं भुक्त्वा स्वर्गलोकं विशालं| क्षीणे पुण्ये मर्त्यलोकं विशन्ति||" - "Those who spend-off their good Karma in experiencing the luxuries of the heaven, will come back to the earth."

One should instead strive to raise above the Karma, as advised by Lord Krishna, by doing their rightful duties (Dharma) while leaving the result to Him. And coming back to south facing homes, a home in which people pray to God daily is as holy as a temple, no matter which direction it faces. And a day on which one wakes up praying god is an auspicious day, no matter what the calendar says.

ॐ भस्मोद्धूलित विग्रहाय नम:

गोबर बहुत सारे कीडेमकोडौंसे भरी होती हैं और बद्बू फैलाती रहती हैं। और जो कोई उसे छूते हैं उनको भी चिपक जाती हैं। लेकिन उस गोबरको जब सुखाकर आग में जलातें हैं तो ओ भस्म होकर पवित्र विभूती में बदल जाती हैं। अपने चिपकनेवाली स्वभाव भी खोजाती है। स्री परमेश्वर, जों वैसेही सफेद रंग मे विराजतें हैं, उस भस्मको अपने सारे शरीर पर लगाकर और भी जगमगातें हैं। हमारा मन भी उसी गोबरकी तरह संकलपौंसे, कामनावोंसे और नीच भावोंसे भरा रहता है। और इस संसार में सबकुछ चिपका लेती है। जब हम उसे वैराग्यसे सुखाकर ध्यानकी आग में जलातें हैं तब ओ मन भी पवित्र हो जाता है। स्री परमेश्वरजीं, जिनको विभूती लगाना बहुतही पसंद है, स्वयं आकर हमारे मन मे पूरा भरजातें हैं। इससे बढकर परम शांती कौनसी हो सकती है? परमेश्वरजी से हम सबको ऐसी शांती प्रदान करनेकी प्रारथना करते हुये, आप सबको शिवरात्री की शुभकामनायें।

Share in 3 seconds

Nowadays we regularly come across posts on social media depicting a god's photo and asking users to share in 3 seconds to get good luck. No - it doesn't work that way. And NO - god is not a social media addict, sitting there waiting for your likes and shares.

Here is how it works: You do good deeds, you get good results. And you do bad deeds, you get bad results. Sometimes the results are not instantaneous. In those cases people cannot find a reason behind the results and they simply call it luck.

But, we usually come across people who have been doing all good deeds throughout their life and still getting bad results. The opposite of this also happens. And in these situations there is no answer in the modern religions (which believe that you only live once) for why this is happening, and they simply call it god's will. If we are all god's children why would He wish good luck for some and bad luck for some? The ancient Indian philosophy has the correct answer for the question of luck - rebirth. For some of the good/bad deeds you do in this birth, you may get the results in next or further in future births.

Then, the question comes "why do we need to prey or believe in god if all we get is as per our past deeds?". The answer is, the stronger your belief in god the more chance that you will refrain from doing bad deeds. But, we also see people who appear to be ardent devotees of god and still doing bad deeds. That's because of the sanskara they are carrying forward from the past births. But, as the belief in god grows, the bad sanskaras slowly get washed away and people turn into being and doing good.

And why do people have to do Yagnas, Poojas etc. when they can get good results just by doing good deeds like helping others? There are two parts to it. Here is an example - when your job performance is good, you get higher salary and when your job performance is bad you get lower salary. But this salary is just for meeting the needs of your family. No matter how much salary you get, you still need to pay some taxes to the government. These taxes are for meeting the needs of the society you live in. The higher taxes a society pays, the higher the living standards can be(not taking into consideration the corruption in the government).

Same way god's government also needs taxes in the form of Yagnas and Poojas. The result of those is used for the greater welfare of the society and not just for you or your family. The more taxes the society pays, the more salaries the government employees get and the more good work they can do. Same way the more poojas and yagnas we do, the more salary god's employees like Indra, Varuna etc. get and they perform their duties with more enthusiasm leading to overall prosperity. This is explained in the Bhagavad Gita in slokas 3-10 and 3-11 given below:

Saha yagnaah prajaah srushtvaa purovaacha prajapatihi
anena prasavisyadhvam ena vostv isha-kaama-dhuk

devaan bhaavayataanena tedevaa bhaavayantuvah
parasparam bhaavayantah srehah paramavaapsyadha

Duty with detachment vs. renunciation

When lord Sri Krishna explained Arjuna how one should not run away from his duties due to his emotions and also explained the concept of renunciation, Arjuna got confused and asked "Oh lord, you are telling about duty and also about renunciation. Please do not confuse me and tell clearly which one of these two Is good for me."

Lord Krishna explained "No doubt they both lead you to salvation. But, performing one's duties without attachment is always better than renunciation. It is almost impossible for an earthling to renunciate all deeds. In fact no one should renunciate three duties-Yajna, Daana and Tapa. But when one performs his duties with detachment towards the result, it leads him to salvation/Moksha."

Our Gurudev Sri Babuji Maharaj used to say leading a family life is easier for attaining moksha than taking sanyasa. He used to compare family life with a train in a station and sanyasa with a train on a bridge. If the train derails in a station it causes little damage and there is every possibility of getting it back on track. But when a train derails on a bridge, it plunges into the river and certainly kills everyone on board. Similarly when one commits a mistake in family life there is always a possibility of correcting it and proceeding in the path of nirvana. But when a sanyasi commits a mistake it leads to his downfall from the path of nirvana.

There is a story in the Jataka tales of buddhism. There is a lake full of lotus flowers and a tribal man jumps into it, swims and plucks lot of flowers, enjoys and leaves. A sanyasi watching this goes near the lake and smells a lotus flower. The Yaksha guarding the lake reprimands the sanyasi for doing this. The confused sanyasi asks the yaksha why he did not say a word to the tribal man who casued a lot of damage and finding fault with him just for smelling a flower. The yaksha explains that the tribal man is an ignorant one and his sins will be excused, but you renunciated all your duties and desires and you have no right to desire a smell. When a paper is already dirty, even a big stain doesn't make a difference. But, a tiny stain on a pure white paper makes it impure.

Coming to duty with detachment our Gurudev used to give a nice example. A cashier in a bank transacts money worth millions daily through his hands. But he never shows any attachment towards those millions and only yearns for the salary worth thousands he gets each month. The moment he shows an attachment to any money that's not his, he lands behind bars.

Same way we should perform our duties with detachment and be content with what god provides us. That leads to moksha and it's the easiest way as shown by many of our Rishis.